The EDU-SMEs project aligns partner institutions curricula in Business Management and Entrepreneurship. New knowledge and pedagogical approaches will be integrated in existing curricula and students gain new competencies especially in the field of Internationalization of small and medium-sized companies (SMEs).

EDU-SMEs corresponds to two main challenges in the Central – Baltic countries:

1. The need to develop business curricula to include more real-life practice.Vocational education and training plays an important role in providing students with skills that match with labour market needs. But the main challenge today is t to achieve stronger integration of classroom learning and practice in the workplace. EDU-SMEs' educational partners are all universities of applied sciences that will cooperate with SMEs through real-life assignments.

2. The need to increase internationalization of SMEs.SMEs form the backbone of the economies of the C-B states, but their international activities are small. Unfortunately SMEs generally have a low ability to enter foreign markets, and available public support is not always according to their needs. EDU-SMEs directly supports individual SMEs in their internationalization through cross-border activities that link SMEs with faculty and students in their target markets.